Today in the MHSAA: 11/6/15

November 6, 2015

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

Volleyball teams hoisted MHSAA District title trophies all over Michigan on Thursday. Here are 10 championship stories that stuck out a little from the rest we came across.

Volleyball

Class A top-ranked Novi swept honorable mention Northville to move on to next week’s Regional – Oakland Press

Honorable mention Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central won its Class A District in four sets over Grand Rapids Northview, the Ottawa-Kent Conference Bronze champion – Grand Rapids Press

No. 8 North Branch swept No. 2 Mount Morris to claim an 11th straight Class B District championship – Flint Journal

Class B honorable mention Saginaw Swan Valley pushed its school-record win total to 57 with a District Final sweep of Freeland – Saginaw News

Another Class B honorable mention, Grant, won its fifth straight District title with a sweep of Fremont – Muskegon Chronicle

Class C No. 8 Brown City won its fourth straight District title with a sweep of Sandusky – Port Huron Times-Herald

Montague, No. 3 in Class C, won its first District title since 1997 with a sweep of Shelby – Muskegon Chronicle

Unranked Hemlock won the final two sets to claim a 3-2 win over honorable mention St. Louis in Class C – Mount Pleasant Morning Sun

Honorable mention Marcellus took No. 8 Mendon to five sets before the Hornets prevailed in a Class D District Final – Sturgis Journal

Unionville-Sebewaing needed five sets and an extra point in the final to down Cass City for a fifth straight Class D District title – Huron Daily Tribune

Today in the MHSAA: 10/19/16

October 19, 2016

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

District soccer continued Tuesday and league champions were crowned in volleyball and cross country all over the Lower Peninsula – but the must-see stories are a pair of “good reads” coming out of the Jackson and Alpena areas.

Each weekday during the school year, we’ll gather and post media links covering the most significant and intriguing high school events from all over the state.

Cross Country

The Caro boys – No. 4 in Lower Peninsula Division 3 – and the No. 6 Shepherd girls won championships at the Tri-Valley Conference all-division final – Saginaw News

The Ubly girls and boys teams repeated as East champions at the Greater Thumb Conference championship race (Ubly's girls are No. 9 in LPD4), and the Reese girls and LPD4 honorable mention Cass City boys repeated as West winners – Huron Daily Tribune

Traverse City West swept the final Big North Conference jamborees, the West boys earning the league title and the Central girls finishing as overall league champion for the 14th straight season. The Central girls are No. 4 in LPD1 and the West girls are an honorable mention – Traverse City Record-Eagle

Harbor Springs’ boys (No. 2 LPD4) kept their undefeated season going with a third straight Lake Michigan Conference final championship, and Traverse City St. Francis (No. 2 LPD3) clinched the girls title – Petoskey News-Review

Boys Soccer

Division 1 No. 2 Portage Northern moved on with a 4-1 District win over Lansing Everett thanks to three goals by Ryan Melgar – Kalamazoo Gazette

Adrian Lenawee Christian freshman Zach Riordan set his school’s scoring record of 36 goals in an 8-0 Division 4 win over Clinton – Adrian Daily Telegram

Girls Swimming & Diving

LPD1 No. 2 Saline got past No. 10 Brighton 112-74 in a matchup of top Division 1 teams – Saline Post

Volleyball

Walled Lake Central repeated as Lakes champion in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association with a five-set win over Brighton – Livingston Daily Argus & Press

Class A top-ranked Novi swept Canton to win its fourth straight KLAA Kensington championship – Oakland Press

Marine City improved to 8-1 in the Macomb Area Conference Gold and clinched a share of the league title with a three-set win over Warren Mott – Port Huron Times Herald

Good Reads

The story of Brooklyn Columbia Central standout running back Micah Raby is captivating, if not from this passage alone about how his adopted parents found him: “Inside the missionary’s hut, on an ordinary table lay an ordinary bible box containing an extraordinary sight, and it caught Doug and Sandy Raby’s eyes and hearts immediately. Inside that bible box – no bigger than a size 10 shoebox – was a 1-month-old boy named Joseph, one of two surviving triplets. His brother did not survive the birth and the birth parents decided to keep the other one, believed to be a girl, because it was the biggest and had the greatest chance of surviving.” – Jackson Citizen-Patriot

Lincoln Alcona announcer Don Franklin first gave voice to the school’s athletic events in 1967, and will retire at the end of this school year with 50 years on the microphone announcing football and a number of other sports over a half century – Alpena News